You can criticize all the religions of India as much as you want but it would not make any difference. I have already conceded in this article and others that all religions are man made. This includes Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism.

The copper plates in question have not been carbon dated. The plates do not prove anything. It is simply a plate that has some Tamil inscriptions in it. I do not have to go on a grand tour or take photographs to know this. We live in the age of the internet remember! The reason I waited a few days before responding to your comment is because I wanted to research as much as possible about the Travancore Manual and the other texts that the manual is referring to. Fortunately most of the manual is available online. Google it and read it for yourself.

You state that “I would rather believe the origins of my religion in Kerala to be through that of St. Thomas than believe the volumes of epics and dramas written about other religions and mythical origins of Kerala”. I do not want to believe. I want to know!

Also, Why don’t you post on this web site the Travancore manual’s page 248 instead of just saying hollow that you have seen it and the contents are not there? Scan it and post it with your refutals for the benefit of all readers.

If I apply the same yardsticks that you have, on any of your own beliefs about the culture, religion, epics, kingdoms of India or the Cheran dynasties – None of these can be scientifically proven, we just believe the historians who documented them. Nothing can be scientifically proven before the year 1850 , including your religion, culture, ways, beliefs, or even the existance of your ancestors before 150 years in a civiliized land like India.

How can you prove the Aryan or Dravidian or even Cheran theory? Or how can you prove even remotely the epic tales which leads to Onam festival, or for that matter the existance and ways of the Brahmins as known to the world today. For example, there are theories that Brahmins were heavy meat eaters at one time! There are theories that Hindusim completely had no following for many centuries when Buddhism was at its peak.

I would rather believe the origins of my religion in Kerala to be through that of St. Thomas than believe the volumes of epics and dramas written about other religions and mythical origins of Kerala. I think it is easier for me to believe and my faith stands well fed when the facts of near realism.

None of the details you have given prove that Thomas came to South India.

Historically there is no record of a Christian community in Malabar prior to the arrival of Thomas of Cana and Bishop Joseph in 345 CE.

The records and dates you list are accepted and pertain to Thomas of Cana and latter migrations of Syrian Christians in the 8th and 9th centuries.

Even if Marco Polo went to China, a story now disputed by Oxford and Cambridge scholars, he did not visit the Coromandel coast. Marco got his travel stories from Syrian Christian and Muslim merchants who visited Constantinople to trade.

The legend of Thomas founded the Christian church in Malabar is just a pious folk tale. It has no historically value whatsoever.

What can be inferred from the legend is that Syrian Christians identified Thomas of Cana with the Apostle Thomas, who had indeed founded their church at Fars (Persia), and made him come to India and be their founder.

St. Paul testifies that there were Christian communities in Spain and Greece by 40 CE. So this puts paid to the Syrian Christian fantasy that their church is earlier than the European churches.

The date for Thomas’s arrival in India, said to be 52 CE, first appeared on the wall of San Thome Cathedral in the 18th century. It is an invented date made by vested interests.

Lastly, India was a synonym for Asia in ancient times and its reference in the Acts of Thomas, a moral fable that admonishes Christians to be celibate even in marriage and identifies Thomas as the look-alike twin brother of Jesus, does not refer to suncontinental India as we know it today.

There is more. If you are interested go to http://apostlethomasindia.wordpress.com and http://ishwarsharan.wordpress.com

The list of “facts” that you presented here are commonly found in websites that promote this mythology including Wikipedia. Most of these “facts” cannot be traced back.

Your quote “In the Island of Taprobane, there is a church of the Christians, and clerks and faithful. Likewise at Malé where the pepper grows; and in the town of Kalliana there is also a bishop consecrated in Persia.” (Reference: Travancore Manual, page 248)”. I guess you found this from Wikipedia.

You state that this vague quote about a Christian traveler (Cosmas) who may or may not have traveled to Taprobane, Malé and Kalliana (are these places in India?) in the 5th century is found in the Travancore Manual (a British era document written around 1906). How can a document written about 100 years ago be used as evidence for events that happened in the 5th century?

The 510, 774, 824 and 849 AD evidences are very similar in nature to the Travancore Manual evidence. These events were never recorded by anyone of that period (Indian or foreign) but are found in documents well after the 16th and 17th centuries when we all know that Europeans were in India and actively tinkering with Indian history and promoting their religion and culture over everybody else.

Regarding the copper plates, the very same Travancore Manual says the following (Page 244): “The copper plate which is in old Tamil character with some Grantha characters is preserved in the Kottayam Seminary. The accuracy of the date 744 AD is very doubtful“.

Do you know where the Travancore Manual got all this information about Cosmas and the copper plates from? The Travancore Manual refers to a book called “The Syrian Church in India” written in the 1870′s by a Christian missionary called George Milne! Nice.

I like to travel and read about travelers. Marco Polo is one of my favorites. Most historians do not believe that Marco Polo visited India. So the story of Marco Polo visiting the tomb of Saint Thomas is a fake. In fact significant doubts are being raised about the extent of Marco Polo’s travels in the literary and historical circles. It is also important to keep in mind that his famous book II Milione is an account of his fathers and uncles journey to China and not his own!.

Although Marco Polo lived in the 12th and 13th centuries you should also know that no authoritative version of Marco Polo’s book, II Milione, is available. It is well known that II Milione was “embellished” and “adapted” into various versions based on individual needs!

So all these “verifiable facts” are not really verifiable.

Here are a few facts other than references of India in the Act of Thomas from the Nag Hammadi archives.

In 522 CE, Cosmas Indicopleustes a Greek sailor, visited the Malabar Coast in South India. He is the first traveller to mention Syrian Christians in India. He wrote, “In the Island of Taprobane, there is a church of the Christians, and clerks and faithful. Likewise at Malé where the pepper grows; and in the town of Kalliana there is also a bishop consecrated in Persia.” (Reference: Travancore Manual, page 248).

In 510 AD Udayamperoor (Diamper) church built by St.Thomas Christians and Knanaya people.

In 774 AD Emperor Veera Raghava gives copperplate to Iravikorthan

In 824 AD Beginning of Kollavarsham (Malayalam Era).First Tharissapalli sasanam (Copper plate) by Stanu Ravi Gupta Perumaal to Nazranies.

In 849 AD Deed given by King Ayann Adikal Thiruvadikal of Venad, to Easow-data-veeran (Tharisappalli copper plate) that grants 72 royal privileges of the Nazranies.

In 1293 AD Marco Polo, a Venetian traveler, visited the tomb of St. Thomas (at Mylapore) and documented this in his books.

These are all verifiable facts and well documented historical facts. The plates are available today in Kerala for anybody to see. The documentation of Cosmas Indicopleustes and Marco Polo are considered significant contribution to the world’s history.

Please know that like any other religion in India, Syrian Chistianism is native to India and is mighty to its own believers.

There is no evidence to suggest that Saint Thomas visited India.

The Acts of Thomas indicates that this mythical saint visited Syria, Parthia (Persia) and Gandhara (Pakistan/Afghanistan). This was confirmed by the Pope. In a speech on September 27, 2006 Pope Benedict XVI said the following “Thomas first evangelized Syria and Persia and then penetrated as far as western India, from where Christianity also reached South India”. This contradicts the Syrian Christian myth that Saint Thomas arrived in Kerala in 52 AD and started converting upper caste Hindus (Christianity as we know today as a religion did not exist in 52 AD and Brahminical religions did not have a hold on Kerala in 52 AD). So what religion was Saint Thomas spreading in Syria, Parthia and Gandhara?

Some historians suggest that Christian “communities” were present in Kerala only after the 11th and 12th centuries (we do not know whether these Christians were Syrian Christians). The earliest Syriac texts found in Kerala only date back to the late 15th century which is almost a hundred years after the Portuguese arrived in Kerala.

There is no hard evidence that st thomas visited india . it may as well be a myth .

But to tell there was no church before the portugese is wrong . The syrian liturgy was used here well before the portugese . The syrian church of india had relationship with persian churches and other oriental churches for centuries before .Actually what portugese have started is the catholic church affiliated to pope. If u are intrested i will give more details of older churches of kerala

Don’t hide behind your religion and make accusations that are not true. I did not question the faith of Christians of the world. Expressing solidarity with the rest of the Christian community in the world is fine. But it is equally important to know whether a fraud has been committed on the people of India (that you are part of) by a colonial power. I somehow get the feeling that it is not that important to you.

As I noted in my article even the current Pope (Pope Benedict) does not believe in the Saint Thomas story as told in India. So I guess you know about the existence of some scriptures (that is not on the internet) that even the Pope is not aware of. I think that you are reading too many Dan Brown books!!

You are free to believe in whatever tall tale you want to and laugh at people who question it but that does not mean that this story will go away.

“First they make fun of you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win” – Gandhi.

lollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

I saw another Dan Brown here…!!!

St. Paul recorded Christian congregations in Spain, Greece, and Rome in the 40s AD. So the story that Christianity arrived in India before Europe is just another self-promoting Indian Christian tale. Even if Thomas brought Christianity to India, it would be in 52 AD and not earlier.

The whole legend unravels as soon as the Acts of Thomas is de-constructed and the exact meaning of the geographical term “India” is understood correctly. All ancient geographers used the term “India” as a synonym for Asia.